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My Dad: A thought




I am thinking today of an expression my father used to use.

The occasion for this expression could come about because my father had just told us a story about something that had happened years before, maybe during his time at an engineering school.

One of the members of his brood would ask him, "where was I when this happened?" 

He would reply, "You weren't even thought of yet." 

It took me a looong time to realize that I hadn't fully understood this nice bit of paternal wordplay. It was a pun on the word that Dad did not use here, the word "conceived". He punned on that word by NOT using it. Conceived has two meanings, and Dad was explicitly invoking only one of them.

Dad passed away in 2003. Twenty two years later I have to say, without any effort at word play, that he is thought of often and with gratitude. 

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